Fulham once again came away from Villa Park with a defeat but defender Timothy Castagne was one of the few players to come away from the game with any credit.
Signed from relegated Leicester City for £13.5m in the summer, the Belgian international has deputised excellently for Kenny Tete while he’s been unavailable due to injury.
Fulham’s last five trips to Aston Villa have now all ended in defeat.
Their last victory came back in 2014 when goals from Kieran Richardson and Hugo Rodallega gave Felix Magath’s side some brief hope that they wouldn’t be relegated.
That victory inspired a 1-0 win against Norwich the following weekend, but relegation was confirmed just a few weeks later away to Stoke City.
Since then, Fulham’s fortunes have been inversely proportional to the results gained at Villa Park which might be the only way to put a positive spin on Sunday’s result.
However, Timothy Castagne is one of the only Fulham players who came away from yesterday’s defeat to high-flying Villa with some positives to take going into the international break.
The full-back didn’t have a winger to directly deal with but instead was tasked with stopping Ollie Watkins when he drifted out wide and an overlapping Lucas Digne.
He fared very well but whether he keeps his place in the side against Wolves in two weeks is another matter.
Marco Silva will hope to have the likes of Tete back available again and mixing up the team might be just what Fulham need to turn their fortunes around.
Castagne was one bright spark for Fulham vs. Aston Villa
According to stats provider Sofascore, Castagne recorded two clearances, four tackles and four interceptions yesterday.
He also won six out of his seven duels and completed 41 of his 51 attempted passes.
The main criticism of Castagne compared to Tete is his ability to deal with wingers in one-on-one situations.
However, because Villa didn’t play with a traditional wide attacker, Castagne was instead tasked with supporting Calvin Bassey centrally at times.
Silva will be lamenting the individual errors his side made once again yesterday alongside the chances they failed to convert.
He’ll be pleased that Raul Jimenez finally got off the mark but it was too little too late against a side just two points off the top of the table.
Unai Emery’s side looks completely different to the one Steven Gerrard brought to Craven Cottage a year ago, despite the line-up looking very similar.
Silva now has two weeks to decide how he’s going to get Fulham out of their current slump and which combination of full-backs will be tasked with facing Wolves.